Lenny Kravitz

Always On The Run

“The lyrics are about how my mom always wanted to give me her wisdom. She would want me to slow down sometimes to think and take things in. I was just on a crazy ride at the time and couldn’t slow down. She was telling me this stuff at the time … “but I’m always on the run”.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over

“I wrote that to my ex-wife [Lisa Bonet – Ed]. We were going through our break-off, which led to a divorce. We had our child and a great life together. We were sort of mirror images of each other; she was the female version of me and I was the male version of her and we blended together. So it was a very difficult time. I remember being in a hotel room in L.A. and I had a Fender Rhodes that I’d brought up to the room. I sat in the dark, ’cause it was a very dark time for me, and played with the chords. All of a sudden I came up with the chord structure and and the song came out. It was my belief that it ain’t over ’til it’s over. There’s always a chance we can pull this together and make this happen. It didn’t go that way, but that was the song.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

Flowers for Zoë

“That was my melody to my child. I used to put her to bed and sing and then it hit me to write a lullaby to her, so she’d have her own. It’s all about this magical world that she’d been born into and all the beautiful things she would experience and learn. It’s a little fantasy. It’s beautiful. It’s a very special song to me.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

Are You Gonna Go My Way

“I thought the subject matter was really interesting, because it’s coming from the mouth of Jesus Christ, as I thought. So basically, “Are you gonna go my way?” meaning “my way of love”.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

Believe

“This is a song that represents the way I was raised and what I was taught by my grandfather on my mother’s side about belief. He taught me that anything my mind could see, I could achieve. It all starts with belief and faith. I was raised Christian and my father was Jewish, so I was in the middle of it all. So that song really represents where I come from and how I think.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

Thinking Of You

“I wrote this after my mom died. It was a really hard time. It was basically a song to her, just asking her how it was, where she was now, what it’s like. Is it everything you would imagine it to be? It wasn’t an easy song to write; it took a minute. And the chorus was just talking about how I’m doing my best to make her happy and proud: “Thinking of you and all the things you wanted me to do be, and I’m trying.” It’s just a beautiful tribute to my mother.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

Bank Robber Man

“I was out jogging and the Bank of America nearby was robbed. They said it was a black guy in a T-shirt, and I was a black guy in a T-shirt jogging. I got stopped by about four or five police cars at gunpoint to my face, to my body, up against the car. It was basically racial profiling. I didn’t get let go until the witness, this old woman who was at the bank who saw the bank robber, came and said it wasn’t me. I was quite nervous because she was old and had just looked and saw brown skin and a T-shirt. But it was an interesting situation. It wasn’t the first time I’ve had guns pointed at my head by the police. That happened three or four times in my life as a teenager in Los Angeles for just riding around in a car in Beverly Hills. So I went right into the studio and recorded this. I was fucking pissed off. That’s why it’s an aggressive song.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

A Long And Sad Goodbye

“It’s about my father. That was a challenging relationship. I wrote that song before he died and I held it for a few years. I thought I was never gonna put it out and then after he died, I did because I needed to. It’s about his infidelity and how he hurt my family and how much I loved and looked up to him. It’s also about how much I felt let down. It’s a heavy, heavy song to write to your father. I never played it for him, though; it would have been too much to handle. The beauty of it was we made peace before he died. That’s why I could put it out. I needed to exorcise and get my emotions out and perform it. It’s written with love.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

Black And White America

“That is my life and my parents’ life. It’s about what they went through as an interracial couple in the early Sixties. The cover photo is one my dad took of me at P.S. 6, my school in New York. I must have been in third grade or something. I grew up knowing both sides. So it’s about the troubles, the challenges and the beauty of it. Obviously, it was also about Obama being president and what that meant. I never thought in my life I’d see that, so it was about that moment. There was a president that had my exact background. He just made me think of my whole situation with my parents and my life. It was just a moment when it all came together.I always feel close to my parents. I feel my mother every day. I was a mama’s boy. Her pictures are around my house. Her energy and the things she had are all around my house. I’m very connected to her.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

Here To Love

“I dreamt that song completely. I think it’s so powerful, and I think every word is just in place. It’s about how we should be living, how we should be loving, how we should be respecting each other and thinking about each other. The lyrics to that song are what letting love rule would be. It’s very powerful to me. I don’t even take credit for that song. It was handed to me.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)

Johnny Cash

“The only people who were around me when my mother died were Johnny Cash and June Carter, because we were all living at Rick Rubin’s house at the time. I had lived with Rick for years; that was my home in Los Angeles. Johnny was there making an album, and my mother was in the hospital. I’d just gotten home from a tour in Japan and went back to the hospital. I went back to Rick’s to take a shower and get some food. In the time that I drove from the hospital to the house, she slipped away; I got to the house and got the phone call that she had died. I was at the bottom of the stairs and I was in shock. I was trying to take it in. and Johnny and June were walking down the stars. Johnny saw me and was like, “What’s up? What’s wrong?” I said, “My mother just died.” The two of them came downstairs and just grabbed me, held me, consoled me. They were just being really beautiful and supportive in helping me get through that moment. But the song is not about my mother dying, nor is it about Johnny Cash. It’s about a breakup that I was going through. I was saying how I needed their comfort and the thing that came out was, “Hold me like Johnny Cash when I lost my mother. Whisper in my ear just like June Carter.” So it’s saying I needed comfort that was powerful. That was the last time I was comforted in that way, when Johnny Cash and June Carter held me.”Lenny Kravitz (1212)